


Shelter from the Storm (The Morning After Remix)

by Poetry



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: First Kiss, Girl Saves Boy, Multi, Natural Disasters, Polyamory Negotiations, Remix, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2558387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If they're going to keep running into the storm, it's a good thing they can always find shelter in each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter from the Storm (The Morning After Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wojelah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wojelah/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Impetus](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/81302) by Wojelah. 



> Written for the dw_remix community on LJ, to which I give thanks for a fun exchange. Kindly beta read by Malathyne.
> 
> Warning for mention of past abuse.

The sunlight oozed like honey around the clouds, softening and sweetening their edges. They were shaped like globes and skirts and wide-spread wings, feathered with the red and purple plumage of sunset. Rose stood on the battlements of T’kilm, squeezed the Doctor’s hand, and laughed. When they promised to return the scaly little creature they’d found in the Grand Canyon back to its home, she’d never imagined it would be like this.

She looked sideways at Jack. His profile looked very dramatic in the rich golden light. His brow was furrowed, like he was trying to read something in the shapes of the clouds. “Penny for your thoughts?” she said.

“I’m a little worried about T’kaad’l,” Jack admitted. “I got attached to the little guy when we were trekking through the Grand Canyon. He’s been away from home for so long. Will they still get him? Does he still belong here? He can’t be the same guy he was before.”

“If it’s really his home, then they’ll take him back,” Rose said. 

“They seem like a decent lot,” the Doctor said. “You saw how they were when he showed up. All that carrying on. They care about him.”

“There’s another thing that’s bothering me,” Jack said, looking back over his shoulder at the far side of the city. “The ocean’s been pulling straight back for the last few minutes. The tide was rising before, and it suddenly just turned around. And those cloud formations – I mean, it’s not the same planet, not even a little, but it reminds me what it was like right before a storm back home. When it got like that, we’d call back the boats and seal up all the windows…”

Rose turned around. Jack was right. The tide was suddenly far back, leaving behind tangled sea-plants and creatures flopping around on the sand.

The wind began to pick up. Jack took Rose by the hand, then the Doctor. He looked toward the stairs down from the battlements, then at the two of them. He said, “Run.”

They ran down the stairs. Cool air whipped Rose’s hair in every direction. When they got near the level of the street, the Doctor cried, “Everybody, get indoors! Take shelter! There’s a storm coming!”

Rose ran down the stairs and herded children toward their guardians. Jack went back up a few steps on the stairway to call to the people on the roofs, gliding between them on their scaly wings, that they needed to get inside. As the wind got colder and colder, more people listened to their warnings. 

“We need to go to the other end of the city,” Jack said. “Where T’kaad’l lives. That’s the downhill side. It’ll get hit first.”

“What’s the fastest way down there?” Rose asked.

Jack nodded at the roofs. “That’s how they do it.”

“We haven’t got wings!”

The Doctor said suddenly, “But the gaps between roofs are narrow enough to jump.”

Rose’s stomach fluttered. She looked at Jack and the Doctor. “Together?”

The Doctor smiled. “Together.”

They shimmied up a rope ladder to the top of the nearest building, walked to its downhill edge, and stood there for a moment, listening to the rumble of thunder, getting louder all the time. Rose reached for the Doctor’s hand and squeezed. “I’ll go first,” she said. “I’m a gymnast, remember? Yaaaahhh!”

She leapt across the gap to the next building, hit the roof running, and used the momentum to launch herself to the next roof. She staggered to a stop and looked over her shoulder. _Thump. Thump._ The Doctor and Jack were close behind. She kept going, stopping whenever she had breath to warn people to get inside. As she came closer to the seaward wall of the city, the wind got so strong her eyes watered, and she could hear the roar of the water rushing in. “T’kaad’l!” she shouted, though it was almost no use; the wind snatched the words from her mouth. “T’kaad’l, where are you?”

Rose felt a warm weight on her shoulder. She turned around. It was the Doctor’s hand. Jack was just behind him. He shouted practically in her ear, “T’kaad’l’s shelter is just this way. Let’s get down the ladder. It’s not safe up here.” 

They climbed down the rope ladder. Only a few people were left on the street, and most of those in the official peacekeeper’s sash. A giant cold raindrop hit the back of Rose’s neck. She shivered and ducked into the entrance of T’kaad’l’s shelter. 

He was huddled under a stone table, surrounded by stubby-winged children. There were no other adults in sight. “Rose,” he said quietly. “Come take shelter with us. I’ve been worried about you and your friends.”

“Where’s your elder matron?” Rose said. 

“She couldn’t stay,” T’kaad’l said. “She’s a peacekeeper. She’s got to round up the stragglers.”

“I’m sure she’d stay with you if she could,” Rose said earnestly, because it seemed like T’kaad’l might not believe it. “Isn’t there anyone else who can keep you company?”

T’kaad’l gathered the children in his arms. “They’re enough company for me.”

The Doctor’s voice came from behind her. “We’ll stay with you. Until the storm’s over.”

T’kaad’l rustled the long scales along his eye ridges, that made him look old to Rose, with long drooping eyebrows. “If you insist.”

The rain began to drum insistently on the walls. Thunder made the ceramics in T’kaad’l’s shelter rattle inside their boxes. “We do.”

Rose sat with her back against the pillar anchoring the ceiling, figuring it would keep steady even if the house shook. The Doctor sat to her right, Jack to her left. By now it was raining so hard it sounded as if the tsunami might be coming from above instead of below.

One of the children said, “I’m scared. Can you tell me a story? From when you were lost, in that other world?”

T’kaad’l turned a multifaceted eye toward the Doctor, Jack, and Rose. Even on his alien face she could read a pleading look. He didn’t want to talk about the time he’d spent half-dead of thirst and exposure in the Grand Canyon, least of all to a little kid.

“I’ll tell you a story,” Jack said. “Where I came from, we had storms like this, and there was this story we’d tell whenever one blew in.”

The children turned to face Jack, fluttering their little wings.

“Once upon a time, there was a traveler named Emreit.” Jack’s voice took on a different cadence, like he was trying to imitate the rhythms of a voice not his own. “She was traveling up the great river to visit her niece. But she didn’t know the ways of the water, and didn’t read the signs that a storm was coming. When she got swallowed by the storm, she was scared, because the river was wide, and she didn’t know how to get to shore. Emreit cried and cried, and cursed the storm.”

“Then a voice spoke to her from the storm. Through the thunder and rain, it said, ‘Why do you curse the storm?’ For a moment Emreit was afraid the storm itself was speaking to her. She said, ‘Because I’m afraid you’ll overturn my boat and carry me away!’ And the voice said, ‘I am not the storm,’ and as it got closer, she saw that it was a river serpent, blue-eyed and beautiful. ‘But I love the storm, because it brings me life. When the rain comes, a thousand tasty jellies rise from the river muck to drink the rain, and I can feast.’ And Emreit said, ‘That’s all very well for you, but I don’t know how to swim.’”

“The river serpent said, ‘I will guide you from the storm, and teach you to swim like I do. In return, you must promise to be my friend, for I am very lonely in this river.’ So when the storm dashed her boat to pieces, Emreit clung to the river serpent’s neck, and watched it swim, and learned how to stay afloat. When the storm passed, she went to visit her niece, then she went to live in the river with the serpent who saved her life. They fell in love, and she filled the serpent with her children. Their children looked like their mother, but they had blue eyes, and could swim and fish just as well as the river serpent. And whenever a storm came, the river serpent’s children both loved it and hated it, because like their mother they feared the destruction it brought, but like the river serpent, they knew it renewed the river and kept them alive.”

“My people called themselves the River Serpent’s Children sometimes, because we went fishing in the storms too, and brought back nets full of storm-jellies to eat. Yeah, storms were scary, but everything was so _alive_ afterward.”

“Will the storm be good for us, too?” the child asked.

“I hope so,” Jack said. “I hope so.”

Rose glanced sideways at Jack and tried to picture his blue, blue eyes in the face of a sea serpent. He stared at a fixed point in the air. The house shuddered. Water began to rush in through the door. 

“We have to get out of here,” the Doctor said. “T’kaad’l, hold onto the children. We’re going uphill.”

There was a great roar, a crash, and the front wall of the shelter collapsed in on itself. Rose trembled and clung to the pillar. Dust rose, then settled into the water. The door was now a third its former size, too small for T’kaad’l, Jack, or the Doctor. T’kaad’l and the children let out high-pitched chirps, their version of crying.

“We’ll clear out the entranceway,” the Doctor said grimly, and began moving chunks of rubble out of the way. Jack joined him.

“Give me the children, T’kaad’l,” Rose said, her smarting eyes fixed on the half-collapsed door. “I’ll get them out of here. I’ll find a place for us to go.” The water was up to her knees and rising.

The Doctor dropped the stone he was holding with a splash of dirty water. “Rose, you can’t go alone. You could get killed out there.”

“And you could get killed in here. If I scout ahead and find more shelter, we’ve all got a better chance.”

Jack said, “Can you swim in a storm, Rose? With lightning crashing down all around you and rain in your eyes and currents pulling you under?”

“Mum took me to swimming lessons at the YMCA,” Rose said. “I was top of the under-tens.”

“No, Rose,” the Doctor said, his eyes as flinty cold as she’d ever seen them. “You can’t go. Not on your own.”

T’kaad’l got out from under the stone table and offered her the children, still chirping their distress. “Take them, Rose. They have a better chance out there with you than in here with me.”

Rose gathered them in her arms. She hesitated. “T’kaad’l. Just because you can’t save them from the storm doesn’t mean you can’t be their family.”

T’kaad’l slowly blinked his multifaceted eyes. “I know,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”

Rose said to Jack and the Doctor, “I’ll come back for you. I promise.” Then she pressed the children to her chest and ducked down, wriggling her way through wet rubble. Some of the scales were scraped off their little wings, and they cried out in pain. But there was nothing Rose could do.

She gasped at the cold outside. Wind buffeted her from the ocean. She shouted to the children, “Grab onto the back of my shirt! I might have to swim!” They climbed over her shoulders, and she felt their pincers clamp tightly into the cloth of her shirt at the back. Just then, a wave came in, and she had to swim to ride it up the slope to the next row of houses. She saw people in peacekeeper’s sashes standing on rooftops, beating their wings as hard as they could just to stay upright. “Where should we go?” she bellowed up to the peacekeepers.

They seemed shocked at the sight of her. She supposed none of them could swim as well in this weather as she could; the waves would damage their wings. She wasn’t sure if they’d heard her, but they could surely guess what she was asking. They pointed to a house upslope with a red flag on its roof whipping wildly in the wind. The rain stung Rose’s eyes, but she swam toward it, taking care not to submerge the children any longer than she had to. The water got shallower and shallower as she went, until it made more sense to walk than swim. Rose was shivering now, but she kept going as fast as her burning muscles could manage. 

Rose staggered into the shelter. She felt pincers gently take the children away. “Oh, poor dear,” someone said. “You need to rest.”

“No,” she said. “I can’t rest. My friends are still down there. And T’kaad’l.”

“Are you sure they haven’t…” 

“My dear, I’m sorry, but they’ve probably drowned.”

“No, they haven’t,” Rose snapped, and she marched back out into the storm. She ran with the downhill slope to propel her. The wind was blasting her in the face now. The waves would come right at her. She took a deep breath and swam under them. Icy fear gripped her. This was nothing like the pool at the YMCA, even if she was a good swimmer. Could she get to the Doctor and Jack in time?

She surfaced, gasped for breath, and took a quick look around to try and find T’kaad’l’s shelter. All the buildings looked the same beneath the sheets of gray rain. She shouted, “DOCTOR!” and nearly got a mouthful of seawater from a wave slamming into her head. “It’s Rose! Can you hear me?”

Faintly, so faintly she feared it might be her imagination, she heard someone call her name. She took a breath and swam toward the sound. When she resurfaced, she saw the Doctor, his clothes and face completely waterlogged, calling to her. “I’m here, Doctor!” she cried. She ducked under another wave. “I know where the shelter is!”

He smiled, but there was something strained in it. “Good!”

“Where’s Jack?”

The Doctor gestured toward the shelter, which was half-submerged by now. “He’s getting T’kaad’l out.”

“Why not you?” Rose demanded. “You can hold your breath for ages, I’ve seen you do it.” Another wave hit her. Her arms were getting tired.

The Doctor said, reluctantly, “He’s a better swimmer than I am. He was born to it, seems like.”

“How long has been down there?”

“Two and a half minutes.”

“What! I can barely manage half a minute!”

“He says he can do at least three.”

“And you just let him go down there!”

“You didn’t see him swim.” His face softened beneath the torrents of water rushing down his forehead and cheeks. “I know, Rose. I’m worried sick.”

The water exploded next to them. Jack emerged, his hair plastered to his head, T’kaad’l clinging to his back. Both of them gasped for breath. “I think – “ T’kaad’l coughed up water. “I tore my wing.”

“Hang on, T’kaad’l,” Rose said. “You’ll be looked after. The children are safe.”

The Doctor examined Jack. “You all right, lad?”

Jack nodded breathlessly. Having T’kaad’l on his back didn’t seem to tire him at all. He bobbed under and over the waves as if he were just stepping over fallen branches in his path. “Where do we go?” he gasped. “I can’t see a thing.”

Rose looked upslope. It was nothing but a gray haze. She knew the way, though. It was one house over and ten rows of houses up, then two more houses over. More or less. She’d see the flag if she got it mixed up. “Follow me,” she said. “I know the way to shelter.”

“Are you sure?” the Doctor shouted over a peal of thunder.

“I made it there and back, didn’t I?”

“Visibility was better before!”

“I trust Rose,” Jack said. 

“She saved the children,” T’kaad’l said. “Thank you.”

“All right,” the Doctor said. “Lead on.”

It still hurt that the Doctor had to be convinced to follow her. She followed him without question all the time. Well, all right, not exactly without question, but still. They were going to have a talk about this later. Much later. After she had a long hot shower. Her body hurt all over from muscle strain and cold. She took a deep breath, struck out toward the shelter, and hoped Jack and the Doctor could follow.

It was both easier and harder to get back. Easier because she didn’t have children on her back to keep above water. Harder because the storm had gotten worse, and she was so _tired._ But if she stopped to tread water, a wave would just knock her over anyway. Rose kept on. It took longer to reach the point where she could walk instead of swim. Walking was slow, because her clothes were so heavy with water. The Doctor and Jack staggered beside her. T’kaad’l was still clinging to Jack’s back, shivering with cold and pain. His wing really was torn; she could see the ragged edge. Without a word, the Doctor came up beside Jack and transferred T’kaad’l to his back. Jack was too tired to protest, though if Rose knew him at all, he’d wanted to. 

There was no one else outdoors, not even peacekeepers. Still, when they were practically on top of it, Rose saw the teetering, tattered red flag. “This is it,” she said through chattering teeth, and knocked on the tightly shut door.

It opened. “Who could be – she’s back! They’re back! Fetch D’bek’t and the children, tell her T’kaad’l’s here!”

Many pincers dragged them in. Rose was glad of the support. They eased T’kaad’l from the Doctor’s back, and a medic came for him with a kit. Rose staggered against Jack, and the three of them collapsed in a heap against the wall. Her arm was lying across someone’s legs, and her other arm was across a pair of shoulders, and she didn’t know whose, and all of that was good. Restful.

Someone in a peacekeeper’s sash rushed to T’kaad’l’s side. “Oh, my darling, I thought you’d drowned, I should have come for you, I’m so _sorry_ …”

“Don’t listen to her,” the medic told T’kaad’l as she smeared an ointment on his torn wing. “Your elder matron was busy shoring up a shelter full of people to keep it from collapsing. She couldn’t have possibly come for you because she was busy being an amazing peacekeeper.”

“Still,” she said. “I should have come.”

“The children are here?” T’kaad’l said faintly.

“Yes. They’re safe and well. But I’m keeping them upstairs for now. Seeing you injured like this would only frighten them worse.” 

“Don’t leave me again, D’bek’t,” T’kaad’l said in a small voice. “I was so afraid.”

“Oh, my dear.”

“Excuse me,” the medic said. “We need to bring T’kaad’l to a sterile zone to operate on the wing. It’s best if you stay out, to prevent contamination. We’ll come fetch you when we’re done.”

“I’ll be back,” D’bek’t said, squeezing his pincer in hers. “I promise.” They took T’kaad’l away on a stretcher. D’bek’t turned to the Doctor, Jack, and Rose. “Strangers, twice you have done my duties for me as an elder matron. I don’t know how to thank you.”

The Doctor’s chest rumbled against Rose’s side. “You can’t always be there. The only way that can happen is if you keep them close all the time, and that becomes a prison sooner or later.”

“Will it happen again?” D’bek’t said. “A rift in space and time taking my T’kaad’l away, or one of the children?”

“I hope not,” the Doctor said. “But you live near a rift. I can’t promise they’ll always be safe. Or that you’ll be.”

D’bek’t shook her head, rustling her long scales. “We need to learn how to be a family again. There’s so much I’ve forgotten.”

“I know the feeling,” the Doctor said.

D’bek’t went back upstairs to tend to the children. Rose was shivering all over. Limbs folded more tightly around her, surrounding her with warmth. Not as much as she’d like, but the Doctor and Jack were just as wet and freezing as she was. She could hear Jack’s teeth chattering. _BLAM._ There was the sound of a shelter collapsing beneath the waves farther downslope. She was so tired, but she’d never be able to sleep like this. What if the storm got up this far? Could they move all the children, the sick, the injured?

“Your turn, Doctor,” Jack said, his breath coming in stutters through his chattering teeth. “Tell us a story. I could use a distraction.”

There was a pause, filled only by the sounds of uneven breath and pounding rain. Then the Doctor said, “Once I had to face down a man who had a mechanical death parrot.”

Rose laughed raggedly into the thigh beneath her cheek. Jack shook all over with giggles. “Did he use it to terrorize the populace? The parrot dictator?”

“More to terrorize his underlings,” the Doctor said. “Most of the populace didn’t think he was so bad. He was plundering entire planets, though, so I had to put a stop to that. I wasn’t going to let a little thing like a deadly robot parrot stop me.”

Rose tried to imagine the Doctor facing down this man with his death parrot all on his own. It wasn’t right. The Doctor ought to have someone. Better with two. Better still with three. She ought to tell him that, that he shouldn’t be alone.

Someone came by carrying baskets full of leaves, all different shapes and colors. “Are you hungry, strangers?”

Rose realized that she was. She glanced at the Doctor. He peered inside the baskets. “The purple ones should be edible for the likes of us.” He took a handful. “Thank you.” 

Rose sat up a little. She wasn’t sure what a leaf was going to do for her, but it was better than nothing. The Doctor gave her a purple leaf. It was surprisingly thick, like a cactus, and as big as her two hands. She bit into it. It was full of a thick, sweet sap that coated her mouth and ran slowly down her throat. It was good, and filling too. She only wished it were warm.

Thunder boomed outside. Rose finished her leaf, and felt mostly sated, though a little thirsty now. “How long until the storm ends?”

“’Til midnight at least,” Jack said. “It’s shown no signs of weakening yet.”

“You should try to sleep,” the Doctor said.

Waves roared outside. Rain lashed against the walls. Rose laughed hollowly. “Right, yeah. I’m sure I’ll sleep just like a little baby.”

“All right, then,” the Doctor said. “Jack and I have each told a story. Have you got one for us?”

“You didn’t finish your story,” Rose said. “What happened to the bad man with the mechanical death parrot?”

“Hoisted by his own petard. The queen he’d been keeping prisoner got free and killed him.”

“So a woman did the job for you. Typical.”

“Hey!”

“There you go, Rose,” said Jack. “The Doctor told his story. Now it’s your turn.”

“I liked your story better,” Rose grumbled. The Doctor left a lot of his out, she could tell. Still, how could any story of hers compete with the river serpent’s children and a mechanical death parrot? “Mickey used to be scared of storms. When we were little.”

The Doctor snorted. “‘Course he was.”

Rose thumped him. “Oi. And I suppose you were never afraid of anything when you were a little kid.” That got the Doctor looking serious, fast. He always turned inward like that at any mention of his home or his younger days. “I told him that at night when everyone was asleep I turned into a monster that ate storms. I drank the rain and ate the clouds with a giant spoon and crunched up the lightning like candy. I told him it made all my hair stand on end but it tasted _delicious._ ” Rose grinned. “He believed me. I think of anyone he knew he thought I was definitely the one who’d probably turn into a monster at night. He knew I’d never hurt him, even as a monster, so he wasn’t so afraid of storms after that.”

Jack chuckled. “I like that story.” Rose noticed he wasn’t shivering anymore. Neither was she. 

A medic bustled by carrying a large bundle of cloth. Rose got to her feet, slowly, and called out to the medic. “Hey,” she said. “Do you need help with the injured?”

“Oh, thank goodness,” the medic breathed. “I need to tear all this cloth into strips to make bandages, but I also have five patients to spoon-feed. Could you do it?”

“Of course,” Rose said, and took the bundle of cloth. The Doctor and Jack joined her in tearing up strips. They spent the rest of the night helping the medics. They were all tired to the bone, but the bone-rattling sounds of thunder and nearby shelter cave-ins made it impossible to sleep.

In the deep dark of night, the storm finally began to subside. The rain continued, but they heard the waves and thunder less and less. When the rain was just a steady tapping against the walls, the Doctor took a chance to open the door and peer outside.

The city of T'kilm looked like a scene from a war movie, after the bombs fell. The seaward side was all rubble, and the houses just a couple of rows down were cratered with debris. The ocean was huge and rough. But it ought to be safe to walk to the city’s western gate, where the TARDIS was parked. “Let’s go,” the Doctor said.

“Wait,” Rose said. “Let’s say goodbye to T’kaad’l and his family first.”

Rose, Jack, and the Doctor couldn’t sleep, but T’kaad’l and his family obviously could. D’bek’t and the children were huddled in a sleepy heap beside T’kaad’l’s healing bed. “Even after all this time,” Jack said, “he really is family.”

Rose took his hand. “Of course.”

The Doctor squeezed his shoulder. “That’s how it works.”

The first thing Rose did when she got back to the TARDIS was ease her hurts with the kits she knew how to use in the medical bay. Then she stripped off her clothes and took a hot shower, with lots of perfumed soap. She came out pink and scrubbed and just about ready to collapse. And when she opened the bathroom door, she wasn’t in her bedroom, but an unfamiliar one, with Jack lying on it, naked. He was asleep, his long eyelashes dark on his cheeks, his hair still damp with his own shower. Now that she had time to get a good look, she saw he was hairless _everywhere_ , his torso a long smooth landscape between his collarbone and his cock. She forced her eyes further down, to his legs, and there were three long red welts marring the bulk of his thigh muscle. Why hadn’t she noticed that? Wouldn’t he be favoring that leg? Had she been so wrapped up in her own pain?

What she really wanted was to sleep curled up against him and wait to see what happened in the morning, but he needed his rest, didn’t he? She ought to move along to her own room. She backed toward the doorway, and hit a bookshelf on the way, jarring Jack out of his doze. Instantly, he was up on his feet, arms up in fists, poised like he was ready to strike. It would have scared her terribly if she hadn’t seen the Doctor react the exact same way to sudden wake-ups. When he saw Rose, he relaxed and settled back on the bed, and he was letting his legs fall open like that on _purpose_ , the sly bastard. But there was nothing calculating in his eyes, just openness, and she could see all the way through him. “Rose,” he said, reaching out his hand as if to pull her in by invisible thread.

It was flattering, overwhelming, to have a man so dashing and good and full of life looking at her like _that_. But if she went with him, she would want so many things that she wasn’t sure she was ready for, and all she wanted to do was rest. “Jack,” she stammered. “I, erm, I think I’ll just go find my room!” 

“Rose, wait – ” Jack called, but too late – she ran right into the Doctor’s chest, and would have fallen over if not for his firm grip on her elbows. She looked into his face, and there was a still-raw scrape along his jaw, and dark smudges under his bright blue eyes. Once she got her balance back, she took a step away from him. He looked like a river serpent’s child, like a monster who ate storms, or even like he might have a robot death parrot hidden in his coat somewhere. Behind her, bedding rustled as Jack got to his feet. Too much. It was all too much for one day.

The Doctor seemed to feel the same way. His eyes widened, and he backed away, as if repelled by her own movement. He turned the doorknob. It was stuck. He tried harder. Nothing happened. The screwdriver came out next. Sparks fizzed all around the doorframe, but it didn’t budge. The buzzing sound of the screwdriver got louder. The door made a sound like a raspberry and remained firmly shut.

Rose felt heat rise to her face and a tightness in her gut. She looked at Jack. He was covering his mouth. Their eyes met, and they instantly started laughing. They laughed so hard they collapsed on the bed, their limbs overlapping. The Doctor started laughing too, leaning against the bedpost for support. And then he was splayed next to them on the bed, holding onto them like the laughter might tear him apart from the inside. 

“Ow,” gasped Jack between peals of hysterical giggles. “Your zip scraped against my leg, Doc.”

“Take the jacket off, Doctor,” Rose said. “You’ll hurt him.” Surprisingly, he complied.

“You’d better take off your dressing gown, too, Rose,” said Jack solemnly. “What if your buttons scrape me too?”

The rare sight of the Doctor without his jacket emboldened Rose. She unbuttoned her dressing gown. She flushed all over, but she told herself that if Jack could be naked in front of the Doctor without shame, then she could, too. “Well?” she said. “Are you going to be the only one with clothes on in this bed?”

“Denim is a bit rough on the sore spots,” the Doctor admitted, but his eyes were distinctly _lingering_ , and Rose allowed herself to really hope, for the first time, that he might have other motives. He pulled his jumper over his head and laid it on the nightstand, undid his belt, and pulled down his jeans and pants in one quick movement. But before she could get a really good look at him with his kit off, he snapped his fingers, and the lights went off in the room except for an electric candle by the door. Still, she could see its light playing across planes of pale skin.

They wriggled together like puppies under the blanket. “Hey, your elbow’s pinning down my hair!”

“Budge over, I’m almost at the edge of the bed.”

“How can you be at the edge of the bed? The TARDIS gave us one big enough for you to have a bacchanal on.”

“I’m not having a bacchanal, I just don’t want to roll over the side in my sleep.”

“All right, budge up, but I’m staying in the middle,” said Rose. She had the Doctor spooned up behind her and Jack’s hand grasping his on her waist; she was exactly where she wanted to be.

She had felt very gray before, as if the storm had washed all the color out of her, but she could feel herself turning pink again on her face and neck where their breath fluttered rhythmically on her skin. When she fell asleep, her dreams were golden and warm.

Rose woke as an arm shoots out across her body to grasp a shoulder. Jack, holding onto the Doctor, whose back muscles are tense, coiled to spring and flee. Rose tensed up too. Was he going to leave them alone? Pretend this never happened? It would be just like him.

“Nuh uh, Doctor,” Jack said. The mattress shifted as he raised his head over Rose’s shoulder. “You’re not leaving until we’ve had a Talk.” She could hear the capital letter. Then, with a smile in his voice: “Judging from last night, the TARDIS might not even let you.”

“A Talk,” the Doctor said dubiously, weighing the capital letter on his tongue. 

“Well, I’d say that our relationship just changed. Took a turn toward the intimate,” Jack said, lingering lovingly on the last word. “So what is this going to look like?”

Rose buried her face in the pillow and started giggling.

“What’s so funny?” the Doctor demands.

“Most men would rather parade about bare-arsed in January than talk about what their relationship _means_ ,” Rose said into her pillow, still smiling.

“I’m not a 21st century man, Rose. I don’t see anything wrong with walking around bare-arsed _or_ talking about relationships.”

“What is there to talk about? Whether we’re going to shag?”

“Well, there’s that. And whether we’ll keep sleeping together. What kinds of affection we like. How public we want to be about it. What to do if something like yesterday happens.”

Rose blinked. “What do you mean, something like yesterday?”

“You went charging off into that storm without us, Rose,” the Doctor said. “You could have been killed.”

“Jack could have died when he dove in to rescue T’kaad’l.”

“Yeah. He could’ve.” The roughness in the Doctor’s voice made Rose, if possible, even more fond of him.

“But he was the one who could do it. And I was the one who could get out of that building. It’s like you told D’bek’t. The only way you can be sure I’m safe is if you keep me close all the time, and that’s as bad as a prison. Are you going to be my jailer or are you going to be my…” She could say it. They’d slept together naked. She could say the words. “My lover?”

“Oh, Rose,” the Doctor said softly. “You’re so young.”

She flinched, but didn’t back down. “It doesn’t matter. Do you respect my decisions or not?”

“‘Course I do. It’s just hard to believe that you’d decide on me.”

“Well, I do. And I’ll keep on doing it.” Rose raised her chin. “That’s what our relationship means. To me, anyway. My choice. And so’s the life we lead, danger and all.”

“What about you, Jack?” the Doctor said.

“Doctor, I chose you the moment I jumped on that bomb,” Jack said. “But are you my choice who I get to take on dates? And bring breakfast in bed?”

Rose perked up at that. She could do with some kippers.

“That sounds fantastic,” the Doctor said, voice gentle. “I do have some things to add, though.”

Rose settled back against the pillows and smiled. “Sure,” Jack said.

“Time Lords live hundreds of years,” the Doctor explained. “Our partnerships would never have worked if we breathed down each other’s necks for centuries. So they had a lot more space than what you might be used to. We didn’t live together, usually. We weren’t exclusive. So I can’t sleep with you every night, and I might not always tell you where I go off to. I ask you to let me do that. I need to have something that’s my own.”

Rose didn’t really like it, but it was so rare to hear the Doctor talk about Time Lords that she didn’t want to rob him of any traditions he could manage to keep. She nodded. 

“So you don’t want exclusivity,” Jack said.

The Doctor hesitated. “I don’t think I’d take advantage of it. This body’s hardly ever taken an interest in anyone. Only you two, so far, and not all at once. But if you two were interested… it just makes more sense, for me, that you should go after it. I don’t own you, after all. I’m a choice. And you can make other choices too.”

“You wouldn’t get jealous?” Rose said, incredulously.

“Think about me kissing the Doctor,” Jack said. “Does that make you jealous?”

No. No, it didn’t. The opposite, really. Rose flushed. 

Jack grinned. “Who’s your favorite celebrity?”

“Jude Law,” Rose said, without hesitation. 

“Think about me kissing… him? Her? Zir?”

“Him,” Rose said, and flushed again. No, that didn’t make her jealous either. Jack flirted with all kinds of people. It made her smile, the way he did that. But the way he flirted with her was different. “I think I get it.”

The Doctor smiled.

“I have something to add,” Jack said. “I get nightmares, sometimes. I scream, and move around a lot. I might wake you up.”

“I don’t mind,” Rose said.

“You can’t touch me when I’m like that,” Jack said. “I might hurt you on accident. If you want to wake me up, just talk to me. Remind me where I am. Then I’ll come back.”

“That happens to me,” the Doctor said. “Sometimes.”

“I don’t mind,” Rose insisted. “I’ve no trouble going back to sleep. I’ll talk to you ‘till you’re all right.”

The Doctor dropped a fond kiss on her forehead. Rose felt her skin tingle where his lips had been. “I’ve got something too,” she said.

She had their full attention, four blue eyes focused on her. She fought the urge to squirm. Mickey had understood, and he wasn’t a future everything-sexual bloke or an immortal alien, though he’d been awkward about it. “I had a boyfriend once,” she said. “Before Mickey. He was a tosser. Just… awful. He used to manipulate me, in all kinds of ways. He… well, anyway. Important bit is, when I wasn’t in the mood, he’d tell me that if I loved him, I’d put out. And I was stupid, and believed him.”

Jack looked confused for a moment, until the Doctor whispered in his ear. He went pale. “That’s - that’s _disgusting_ ,” he said. The Doctor’s lips were curled like he’d tasted something bad. It gratified Rose. Her mother had been angry when she figured out what a rotter Jimmy was, but she hadn’t been surprised. The Doctor and Jack were shocked, as if they couldn’t believe that anyone would dare hurt Rose that way.

“Yeah,” she said, a little hoarsely. “My mum finally convinced me I deserved better. Anyway. The thing is, in my head, I know I can trust you. Both of you. No matter what. And you’re gorgeous, both of you, so it’s not that at all. But when it comes to, y’know, shagging, my heart’s been broken. And it needs more convincing. So I’m not really ready for it yet. I need more of this. Being familiar, and comfortable, without the shagging, until I know I won’t be scared.”

“Thank you for telling us, Rose,” the Doctor said. “That was brave. And of course we can wait.”

“Even if you’re never ready, you’re still worth it, Rose,” Jack said, taking her hand. “Just being close to you like this – it means everything to me.”

Rose felt like she ought to be surprised, but she wasn’t. Jack had never been all about sex, outrageous flirt though he was. The way he’d looked at them when they’d rescued him from his ship had been one part desire and all parts love – not so different, really, from the look in T’kaad’l’s multifaceted eyes when they reunited him with his family, all disbelief and gratitude. She reached out and held the Doctor’s hand too. She took their hands, and held them up to her face, and kissed them both on the knuckles.

“I love you,” she said, and it was so easy. “I love where you came from, and I love who you’re trying to be. I love your stories.” Rose looked up at them over their hands. “Kiss me.”

They did kiss her, and each other too, laughing with delight into each other’s mouths, and everything was honey-bright with wings, like the sun before the storm on T’kilm.


End file.
